Collector Turns Passion For Train Sets Into A Steaming Business.

So in 1965, at age 24, Henry Timmes responded to an ad in a Brooklyn, N.Y., newspaper and bought his first electric train, a Standard Gage 1835 Freight with a replica steam engine for $150. It was a nice train, but it didn't have everything Timmes wanted. So the following week Timmes bought another train. A week later he bought a third.

Thirty years later Timmes has more train sets than he can count. And most of them are for sale at Trader Jack's, Timmes' storefront outlet at 61 S. State Road 7, Plantation.

Trader Jack's is as much an electric train museum as retail outlet, and Timmes is its curator, historian and passionate devotee. Timmes, a former building engineer, opened Trader Jack's 10 years ago as a labor of love.

"I decided I had more fun buying and selling trains," Timmes said. "There are other shops that handle trains, but this is a collector's shop."

There's not much Timmes hasn't collected or sold. He has trains from 1918 to the present at prices ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. His customers are mostly in their 30s and 40s and have a soft spot for train lines such as New York Central, Santa Fe, Pennsylvania and Union Pacific.

"It's what they had as a kid and they want it back," Timmes said. "Some wives will come in looking for something for their husband. I ask what year he was born. If they say 1952, I find something from 1952."

Bill Blaugher of Plantation got his Lionel train from the 1950s back from his sister last year. Blaugher's fiance, Angela Matthews, encouraged him to make the set operational again, and Blaugher has spent more than $1,200 getting it repaired and adding accessories.

"I'm so happy it's up and running and it all works," Blaugher said.

Matthews, who is from Cornwall, England, said, "It's like watching fish in a tank. It's very relaxing."

Blaugher has a 4-by-8-foot platform with track that serves three train lines. He had his eye on a fourth set, a brown Pennsylvania Express Agency model with gold letters and cars named Orange Bay, Red Bay, Lakewood and Mountain Valley.

"I'm from Philly and there's a certain attachment to the caboose colors and metals," Blaugher said. "Like certain odors you remember from your childhood."

A line familiar to South Florida is the silver CSX line. Timmes has an electric model that digitally produces sounds, including a conductor talking on dispatch and the train rumbling over the tracks. It sells for $395 and sits on display in the front window at Trader Jack's.

Timmes also has a 30-inch-long Pennsylvania GS 2 by Lionel, which has

lights and sells for $1,495.

That model was too pricey for Louis Savage, 38, who selected the New York Central Flyer for $169 as a Christmas gift from his wife, Joyce. "We'll start with this," Joyce Savage said, "and with Christmas and birthdays we'll keep adding on."

Louis Savage got his New York Central Flyer train set three weeks before Christmas but, like a kid, he didn't wait until the 25th to start playing with it.

"I'm going to put it up tonight," he said the day he bought it. Trader Jack's is open daily from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. until Christmas. After the holiday, hours will be 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. The phone number is 583-3334.